


counting down the days

by JealousMary



Series: Milex-verse [4]
Category: Alex Turner - Fandom, Last Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane - Fandom
Genre: Alex fanboying over The New Abnormal, Established Relationship, Fluff, How Do I Tag, M/M, Miles trying to pretend things are fine and not really succeeding, basically just milex quarantined together, both of them getting soft and touchy with each other, fluff but with a horny touch to it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JealousMary/pseuds/JealousMary
Summary: On the one hand, they get to spend more time with each other than they've had in years, on the other, the world is pretty much falling apart. But if there's one good thing about this situation, it's definitely the fact they're facing it together.
Relationships: Alex Turner/Miles Kane
Series: Milex-verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991281
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	counting down the days

**Author's Note:**

> I've wanted to write this since June. Better late than never.  
> Big thanks to Shen for saving me with the title!

“Twelve,” Alex points out dryly, and Miles looks up from his phone, not without an effort.

“Wha’?”

“It’s the twelfth time in the past ten minutes that you’ve frowned while scrolling through this,” Alex nods at the screen, even now deliberately avoiding looking at it directly.

“And how many times I’ve smiled?”

“’bout seven, maybe? Hard to tell. You’re basically smiling all the time that you’re not frowning.”

“Aw, c’mon, look, there’s a parrot singing along to Queen,” Miles turns the phone to him, and Alex, while giving him a displeased stare, still smiles at the slightly out-of-tune but unmistakably recognizable melody.

This confrontation, half joking, half serious, has been going on for quite a few years: Alex never fails to laugh at videos of funny animals but they don’t seem to incline him towards getting a twitter account of his own, and Miles, while he doesn’t deny that sometimes the social media brings too much negativity, can’t find it in him to give it up.

“Well?” Miles takes his phone back, and Alex, stopping mid-laugh, gives him a disapproving look.

“I wrote a whole album about what I think of twitter an’ such, and one bird, even that cute, won’t make me change me mind.”

“You know, I still don’t understand how come that I am the one who’s been hanging out with Bellamy, but you’re the one who got all dystopian.”

“Maybe we… How do they say? Share a brain cell.”

“So you _do_ know that meme!” Miles exclaims in astonishment, pointing at Alex almost accusingly, and he looks away with a slight smirk.

“M’not that old and hopeless.”

“Could fool me, y’know.”

Alex reaches out across the table to mercilessly poke at his ribs, and Miles yelps, almost knocking over his cup of coffee, and catches Alex’s wrist, squeezing it warningly.

“Wanna see for yourself exactly how _not_ old I am?” Alex growls in a lower voice, leaning closer, and Miles holds his gaze for a few seconds before pressing a quick innocent kiss to Alex’s lips, immediately making him giggle and breaking the tension.

“I do,” Miles kisses him again, on the cheek this time. “Jus’ later. Would really like to finish me breakfast.”

“And your scrolling,” Alex mumbles, but with barely any irritation left in his voice.

“Yeah, that, too,” Miles unlocks his phone again but looks up in a couple of seconds. “It’s not that I don’t see your point, it’s just… Given the situation, it feels like the only way to connect with the rest of the world. To make sure it’s still there.”

Alex sighs, giving him a much softer look than before.

“I get it, too. But if this is, indeed, the only way, then sometimes I feel like not taking any way at all. It sucks, but, I guess,” he suddenly casts his eyes down, “as long as you’re here, I can handle being isolated from everything else.”

Miles puts down his mug, desperately resisting the urge to hide his face in his hands, because even after all these years, he can still feel himself blushing.

“I love you, too, y’know?”

Alex makes a small sound resembling a moan and leans over the table to kiss him again, deeply and passionately this time. Miles cups his face with his hands and tries to pull him even closer, risking knocking something on the table over again.

“Mi, we’ve gone soft,” Alex complains, shaking his head, once they manage to separate for a brief moment. “We haven’t been this grossly in love since… Since when, really?”

“The Puppets’ tour, prob’ly.”

“Yeah. And they say this thing’s gonna last for two months, at least-“

“Don’t remind me,” Miles groans.

“M’just saying, by the end of these months we might just turn into our twenty-year-old lovestruck selves again.”

“D’you mind?” Miles shrugs, and Alex chuckles, taking his hand and entwining their fingers together.

“Not really, I guess?”

“So be it, then. S’not like we have much of a choice, anyway,” Miles grimaces slightly before focusing on his phone once again.

They are, probably, luckier than most, being quarantined together in Miles’s spacious and comfortable London apartment, and spending so much time with each other does feel nice, but it doesn’t stop them from wishing that the circumstances behind it were different.

Miles misses being able to go for a run whenever he needs to clear his head and get some air, while Alex, not being a big fan of jogging, longs to just walk aimlessly around the city, maybe pop into his favourite record store and get lost there, maybe find a new cozy coffee place to chill at after home gigs (once they resume, of course). One time Miles tries pointing out that they could have any brand or type of coffee imaginable delivered to them in half an hour, but Alex rightfully protests that it’s not the point.

For the moment, they’re both stuck with the balcony and a treadmill in the corner of the living room, and Alex relentlessly teases Miles every time the health app on Miles’s phone complains that he’s not exercizing enough.

They try their best to stay active, to not give in to this new lazy, apathetic lifestyle, but little by little, it gets the better of them, and the days slowly begin to blur into one never-ending cycle of the same things repeating over and over. Improvising for a bit on their guitars – starts out interesting, but never really gets anywhere. Trying to get into reading only to get stuck at putting together a list of books. Stress eating – they’ve done a fair share of it even during better times, so now slipping into the kitchen at 3 am to get some tea and snacks has become an almost daily habit. ( _Our bad habit_ , as Alex never fails to add, but even puns are becoming part of the routine). Eventually, just listening to music curled up into each other on the couch and talking about anything they can think of to take their minds off the reality.

All things considered, Miles geniunely thinks they’re doing pretty good. At least, it’s definitely the most frequent sex they’ve had in years. The most craving for physical contact he’s seen Alex in years, too, and Miles is not sure what to make of it: whether to be glad they haven’t ceased to desire each other so strongly or worried that the isolation is affecting them too much.

But for the most part, they’ve managed to stay themselves. Too much themselves, even, Miles thinks upon hearing Alex singing the same melody that’s been echoing through his apartment for the past week again.

“God help me,” Miles mumbles under his breath, sticking his head through the kitchen door where Alex is doing the dishes. “Hey, I’ll finish this if you shut up.”

Alex glances at him over his shoulder with a smirk, apparently neither impressed nor offended.

“ _I’m making bad decisions, oh, really-really bad decisions…_ ”

“The only bad decision _I_ made was let you buy that vinyl while you’re staying at my place.”

“You really think not having a physical copy would ‘ave stopped me?”

“No, but I’m this close,” Miles shows his thumb and index fingers put together, “to throwing it out the window just to avenge myself.”

“You said you liked the song when it came out!”

“Not for the fiftieth time in a row!”

Alex shrugs, turning back to the dishes.

“ _Pick up your gun, put up those gloves-_ ,“ and Miles can swear he’s purposefully singing louder.

“I’ve changed me mind, I’m about to throw _you_ out the window.”

Alex continues singing, shaking with silent laughter, but stops, shrieking when Miles comes up from behind, lifts him up bridal style and even takes a couple of steps towards the window. Alex’s arms immediately wrap around his shoulders, holding on tightly.

“If you throw me, I’ll drag you along.”

“Oh, please,” Miles whispers into his ear and suddenly bites on his earlobe, making Alex shiver. “I know how to handle you.”

“Please?” Alex tries, catching his stare, and it takes all of Miles’s willpower to keep frowning. “I’ll switch to _Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus_?” Miles takes another step. “Sorry!” he giggles into Miles’s neck. “C’mon, put me down before we break somethin’.”

Miles reluctantly lowers him back on the solid floor but keeps a hold of his waist for a few more seconds.

“Just don’t switch to _Ode to the Mets_ , and you might live,” he lets Alex go with a final kiss to his cheek.

“S’a masterpiece of a song!”

“It’s too fucking depressing for right now,” Miles shakes his head decisively, and Alex, sighing in defeat, doesn’t argue with that.

In a way, they might be putting on their brave faces even in front of each other, constantly making jokes (with varying degrees of darkness to them) and solemnly keeping track of how many days have passed in quarantine, but choosing to avoid, for the most time, talking about anything seriously. Sometimes, it even works, and things seem normal for a while, like they’re just taking a break from touring - keeping the rest of the Monkeys updated on unnecessary details about their relationship (to Nick’s delight and Jamie’s dismay), trying to come up with new music every now and then and just lazing around for the rest of the time.

Alex is a bit more open in this matter, in a way that he gets more touchy than usual: among the two of them, he’s always been more of a hugger, but now it feels like he’s given up the last ounces of self-restraint. Not that Miles minds too much - waking up from Alex’s sleepy kisses to his neck and jawline has definitely become his favourite way to start a new day.

And even if giving Alex a shoulder massage is far from a productive way to spend their evenings, Miles wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

Alex is sitting on the edge of the bed right between his sprawled legs, head tilted back slightly, eyes closed in pleasure as Miles’s fingers dig into his muscles. Miles blows playfully at the back of his head, making him shiver and giggle, and starts working on a tight knot at the base of Alex’s neck, making him moan in a hardly decent fashion.

“Do it again- O-oh,” he throws his head even further back and tries shifting closer despite Miles’s hands holding him in place. “ _Harder_.”

Miles barely refrains from making any suggestive sounds himself because this breathless whisper sounds unbelievably dirty.

“I swear to god, you’re much less vocal during sex.”

Alex turns his head slightly to throw an offended glance at him. “Am not!”

“Wanna prove it to me?” Miles leans closer to kiss the sensitive spot between Alex’s shoulder blades, and is rewarded this time with a breathless gasp rather than a moan.

“I do,” Alex’s hands find his own and squeeze slightly. “But me shoulders still feel a bit tense.”

Miles snorts, resuming the massage with deliberately slow, thorough movements, and Alex squirms under his touch, gasping for breath again.

“You’re just gettin’ a kick out of this for free, aren’t ya?” Miles mumbles into his ear, and Alex quickly turns his head to brush his lips against Miles’s cheek.

“Maybe. I can do it later for you if you want, though. Or,” Alex’s eyes, pupils already dilated, get even darker, “can do something else. Anything you want.”

“You’re-,” Miles stops to take a deep breath because the room suddenly seems to get significantly hotter and tries to focus on his own hands still rubbing Alex’s shoulders.

“M’what?”

“Not helping,” Miles states accusingly, and Alex turns around in his arms, his presumably tense muscles forgotten.

“Okay, then,” Alex puts his hands on Miles’s waist, slowly sliding them down. “How ‘bout I help you with this?”

His hand covers Miles’s erection, and Miles, feeling the remnants of his self-control slip away, moans loudly and pulls Alex in for a wet, hungry, and passionate kiss, his hands getting under Alex t-shirt, fingers tracing the outline of his abdominal muscles. Eventually, they somehow end up lying down, Miles on his back, Alex almost directly on top of him.

Alex’s eyes show that he’s still intending to get an answer, but his hand gives Miles’s cock a first light stroke, and Miles gasps and arches his back, longing for a more solid touch.

“Please do,” he breathes out, lifting his hips to rub against Alex’s thigh, and Alex pins him down against the bed with a low growl, letting Miles feel his own hard erection against his stomach.

Miles’s hands tug at the hem of Alex’s t-shirt, and Alex raises his arms above his head for a moment, allowing Miles to take it off before leaning down again and pinning Miles’s wrists to the bed. Miles raises his head just enough to bite on Alex’s bottom lip.

“We still need our hands to undress, y’know.”

Alex groans, trying to shut him up with a kiss as Miles giggles right into his lips.

“You’re good at ruining the mood, aren’t ya?”

“Your mood doesn’t look ruined to me,” Miles points out, glancing down at the outline of Alex’s boxers.

“Fuck you,” Alex lets go of his wrists and tugs down on Miles’s briefs after quickly removing his own.

“Really hopin’ you would,” Miles retorts right before Alex’s tongue slides into his mouth again.

Alex’s hands fiddle impatiently with Miles’s t-shirt, taking it off clumsily and throwing it somewhere across the room, and then their nakes bodies collide together, limbs entangled in a hot mess, hands trying to grab everywhere at once, Alex’s ruffled hair tickling Miles’s neck.

Alex fucks him slowly, savouring every move, every touch as Miles holds onto his shoulders so tightly that he’ll probably leave bruises, every hip thrust that makes them both moan breathlessly. Miles is already close to coming when their eyes meet and lock onto each other, and even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to tear his gaze away from Alex’s raw look full of desire. 

Alex leans down to kiss the soft skin above Miles’s collarbone and then suddenly bites on it as his hand wraps around Miles’s cock, and Miles loses it completely, orgasm taking over his body in a powerful wave as he cries out and shudders, his eyes shut tightly, and eventually sinks into the bed, feeling like there’s not a single bone in his body nor a thought in his head. Alex, moaning hoarsely, makes a few more desperate thrusts before coming, too, and goes limp, weighing down on Miles with his body and breathing heavily.

Miles elbows him in the ribs half-heartedly, and Alex reluctantly moves to the side, allowing Miles to take a deep breath before pulling him in for a kiss, soft this time rather than passionate.

“Are your shoulders feeling better?” he mumbles into his lips and can feel him smiling even with his eyes closed.

“They definitely are, thank you very much,” Alex shifts closer again, tucking himself into Miles’s side and rests his head on Miles’s shoulder, reaching lazily for his phone on the nightstand.

His face changes into an expression of slight shock as he looks at the screen, blinking in confusion.

“Wha-”

“Yeah,” Miles giggles. “I might ‘ave heard it buzz like fifteen times. Who’s that?”

“Our group chat,” Alex groans, scrolling through the messages.

“Oh.”

“ _Oh_ indeed.”

“Tell me what happenned,” Miles kisses the top of his head as Alex continues frowning at the screen. “Don’t wanna go get me phone.”

“Um,” Alex drags a hand over his face. “Matt asked you whether you bought that guitar you found online last week... And apparently, we didn’t reply for ten minutes, so Nick made an assumption what we might be so busy with.”

“Was he wrong?”

“Not really,” Alex chuckles. “And, uh, they started tagging us, and then Nick got into too much detail and Jamie left the chat.”

“Again? This is what, fourth time this week?”

“Fifth. Don’t forget the one when we got drunk and I dared you to send them that selfie-”

“Right,” Miles mumbles, embarassed. “I should prob’ly apologize to them about it.”

“Nah,” Alex props himself up on his hands, his face directly above Miles’s. “They’re good,” he effectively silences any protests Miles might’ve had with a kiss and, rolling back over to the other side of the bed, glances at his phone again and begins to type something.

“Telling them to fuck off?” Miles snickers, but Alex shakes his head.

“Thanking them for their kind worries about our well-being.” Miles blinks at him in confusion, and Alex giggles and shrugs, looking away. “Gotta be nicer to people in these trying times or whatever.”

He gets up and heads towards the bathroom while Miles continues to narrow his eyes suspiciously at his back.

“Come join me?” Alex glances over his shoulder with a teasing smirk, and Miles shakes his head absent-mindedly.

“Not quite ready right now.”

“Okay,” he disappears behind the door, leaving Miles to stare at the ceiling and try to gather his thoughts.

It surprises him, and not in a good way, how fast his thoughts get back to reality despite the mind-blowing sex: as soon as Alex is out of his sight, the feeling of untroubled bliss goes away, too, and Miles groans in irritation, trying to think of something other than the news headlines he’s read today. Maybe, just maybe, Alex has more of a point about social media than Miles is willing to admit.

Alex returns in a couple of minutes, cleaned up and dressed, and yawns, leaning against the doorframe, and raises an eyebrow when Miles doesn’t meet his eyes.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Miles reluctantly gets up to clean himself, too. “It’s just,” he stops briefly, passing Alex in the doorway, and Alex’s fingers gently wrap around his wrist, “I know we keep joking about things and all, but d’you ever feel like it’s getting to you? Really getting to you?”

“Of course I do,” Alex mumbles and leans closer to press his lips to Miles’s shoulder briefly. “Haven’t you noticed me being, er, literally unable to keep my hands from you for a second?”

Miles gives him a doubtful look.

“When have you _ever_ been able to do that?” and Alex bumps his forehead against Miles’s, frowning offendedly.

“Is this what I get for being honest, you laughing at me?”

“I dare you to say it’s not true.”

“Just fuckin’ go,” Alex snorts, giving him a solid slap on the ass. “We’re not having a heart-to-heart while you’re naked. Gonna end up either awkward or in more sex.”

“My bet’s on sex.”

“Mine, too, so let’s not risk it.”

“No fun in playing safe,” Miles sighs, and Alex chuckles, letting go of his hand and stepping away.

“Promise you plenty of fun later.”

“Deal,” Miles winks at him, closing the door.

When he comes back, Alex is standing by the window, peering at something in the darkness through the crack in the curtains, fingers tapping mindlessly on the glass. Hearing the door creak, he turns around with an excited glint in his eye before Miles has a chance to consider what he should say.

“Wanna go for a run?”

Miles stares at him blankly, unsure whether he heard that correctly.

“You don’t run,” he blurts out awkwardly, and Alex smirks.

“‘Course I do. Just never really know why.”*

Miles rolls his eyes, instantly catching on the reference.

“Talking in your own lyrics does seem more like you,” he mumbles, still confused under Alex’s questioning stare. “Well, I do, but-”

“It’s not like we’d risk messing up the social distancing thing too much past 11 pm.”

“What if we stumble onto a police patrol?”

“Well,” Alex puts his arms above his head, stretching demonstratively, “I guess we’ll just have to run from them, in that case. You’re in or not?”

“Bet your ass I am,” Miles can’t help a smile spreading over his face because god knows, he’d missed it, and leave it to Alex to be able to tell when he's needed it most.

Actually, he’s been trying to convince Alex into doing runs together for ages, but Alex always preferred to sleep in, or drag him to the gym instead, or proclaim dramatically that he’s tired and can’t move. On a few occasions, he might have even got Miles to skip a day and lazy around with him instead, and, in general, normally remained adamant that he saw no point in wasting his energy on this. 

But then again, so far this year has been anything but normal.

The night air is chilly, so they keep up a pretty fast pace, their footsteps echoing through the street. There is, indeed, not a soul in sight, and only the rows of lit windows serve as a sign that there’s still life in the city, that they are not the only ones left. The street lamps shine too brightly for any stars to be possibly visible, and yet, Miles can’t help stealing glances at the mesmerizing dark void of the sky above, almost like he’s learning anew what it looks like.

They barely look at each other, but Miles can hear and feel, even, that their steps have fallen in perfect sync and so, he suspects, has their breathing. He makes a mental note of doing whatever it takes to talk Alex into doing this at least one more time, because it feels exhilarating, and the weeks of staying at home are only partly to blame for it.

After a few blocks, they slow down and eventually stop, still without exchanging a word or even a glance. Alex leans forward a bit, hands on his knees, breathing heavily, and Miles, to his surprise, finds himself a bit out of breath, too. Getting back in shape after things get back to normal, he can already tell, is not going to be fun.

“M’not sure I can manage running all the way back,” Alex finally says after catching his breath a little. “But I gotta admit, this feels so fuckin’-”

“Normal,” Miles nods, and at the same time, Alex says:

“Good.”

“Same thing, by current standards.”

“Yeah,” Alex laughs quietly, brushing his hair out of his face. “You feelin’ better?”

“I am,” Miles looks up to the sky again and takes a deep breath, feeling his pulse still racing from the running, and the cool wind pleasantly blowing in his face, and, just for the briefest moment, his mind being completely at peace, devoid of every anxious thought about the rest of the world that he’s tried to cling onto for so long. “Thank you.”

“Keep talking like this, and I might change me mind about going for runs wtih you,” Alex chuckles.

“You know I’ll never let you forget you said this, right?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially,” Alex takes a step closer, “since it, apparently, y’know, helps.”

“Yeah,” Miles huffs, dragging a hand over his face. “I dunno, I’m just,” he meets Alex’s eyes a little tentatively. “I’m so tired,” he admits in a whisper and takes a slow shaky breath because now that he’s said it, the weight on his shoulders seems just the slightest bit lighter.

Alex steps to the side. leaving him to gaze at the dark alley ahead of them, and then his arms circle and tighten around Miles’s waist from behind as he rests his chin on his shoulder and presses a kiss to his jawline.

“I know,” he says so softly that something in Miles’s chest hurts in response. “S’alright. It will be.”

Miles covers Alex’s hands with his own, pulling him even closer, and Alex happily obliges, chuckling into his ear.

“Out of all the things we’ve seen together, I never imagined a global catastrophe would be one of them.”

“We’re pretty good survivors, I’d say,” Alex whispers, his breath tickling on Miles’s skin. “How’d it go? _Your lips my lips, apocalypse_?”

“Should I even ask what is _that_?” Miles giggles, and Alex scoffs offendedly.

“A pretty good song, actually.”

“Stick to The Strokes, Al.”

“Are you giving me an official permission?” Alex turns his head, trying to look him in the eye. “Because I will use it, fair warning.”

“Like I don’t know you will,” Miles leans back a bit, resting his head on Alex’s shoulder. “Race you home?”

“Sure. Just… in another two minutes, d’you mind?”

Miles stays silent for a few seconds, taking in as much of his surroundings as he can: the chilly air, the warmth of Alex’s body pressed as close as humanly possible to his own, a myriad of lights in the windows, the wind blowing right through the empty street they’ve stopped at, the bottomless abyss above their heads.

A steady heartbeat against his back. His own voice, so hushed he can barely hear it himself.

“Make it five.”

**Author's Note:**

> * " _I never really know why I am running till I get caught..._ "  
> I'm sorry, I had to.
> 
> In the final scene, Alex is quoting _Cigarettes After Sex - Apocalypse_ , and earlier he's singing, of course, _The Strokes - Bad Decisions_. Go listen to _The New Abnormal_ if you haven't already.


End file.
